Could Snoring Cause Heart Attack, PLEASE HELP!

Please Diamond readers help me, One of my friend snored so loudly that the whole house seemed to vibrate. It was the vibrations that worried me, not the noise.

Then I read some research showing that road workers who habitually used a pneumatic drill can get disease of the arteries in their arms due to the vibrations from the drill.

It’s called Raynaud’s disease and is the result of furring up your blood vessels. In cold weather, your hands get cold and painful very quickly – so-called “dead hands”.

The researchers on this study have shown that this arterial disease was due to the vibrations from the pneumatic drill.

Now it turns out that the ­vibrations due to snoring can have similar effects but in other parts of your body.

According to one study, snoring can trigger stroke and heart trouble and this is because habitual snorers are more likely to develop furred up carotid arteries – the main arteries in the neck that supply oxygenated blood to most of the brain.

Researchers at the University of Detroit, US, believe that the trauma caused by the vibrations of snoring may result in inflammation that leads to arteries thickening, and cutting down the flow of blood.

They say this is the first stage of atherosclerosis, where the arteries become stiff and furred up, increasing the risk of transient ischaemic attacks and strokes.

“Whether vibrations of snoring can damage the carotid artery is possible but as yet unproven,” says Dr Philip MacCarthy, clinical director of ­cardiovascular services at King’s College Hospital, London.

Snoring has also been linked to ­hardening of the arteries around the heart, which can lead to heart attacks. It’s thought this may be due to sleep apnoea that can set off inflammation in the body and may contribute to furred up arteries.

Three million Britons have sleep apnoea, where the tissue of the throat muscles collapses, ­triggering snoring and, in some cases, stopping the flow of air altogether, leading to you briefly waking up.

The latest research shows the vibrations of snoring can affect your eyesight too.

Researchers in Taiwan recently announced that people with sleep apnoea, which causes loud snoring, are almost twice as likely to develop the eye disorder glaucoma too.

Taiwanese scientists analysed data from 1,000 patients with sleep apnoea and 6,000 without it. Sufferers were nearly twice as likely to develop glaucoma, where increased pressure within the eyeball causes gradual loss of sight.

Researchers believe this is because sleep apnoea may reduce the amount of oxygen getting to the eye, increasing the risk of glaucoma.